Published 1st April 2014
Simple, subtle and elegant….can we be talking tattoos?
By Janey Davies for Pamper Pad
If you’ve been following the fashion magazines recently, you can’t have failed to notice a trend for bigger and bolder tattoos on our celebrity idols. And with our love of all things celebrity, you’d think that we’d blindly copy everything our Hollywood heroes do. But despite such stars as Cheryl Cole and Angelina Jolie sporting ever increasingly large tattoos, the signs are that we normal folk are tending towards to the more subtle and elegant. So bigger isn’t necessarily better, but why aren’t we following our celeb chums?
Well I don’t know about you, but when I saw the pictures released of that enormous rose tattoo on Cheryl’s bottom, complete with the grey thong covering up her modesty, I didn’t think classy, I thought it looked tacky. And as for Angelina, she’s got so much writing on her body now that she just looks like an over used note pad. She may be one of the most beautiful women on the planet, but stick her in a designer ball gown and those tattoos make her look scruffy and untidy. They simply lower her class status, sure, they shouldn’t, but they do.
So it seems that instead of having a huge tattoo on a body part that is immediately visible and shouting ‘hey here it is!’ the trend is not to follow the celebrity lead but to keep it discreet, hiding them away and only allowing certain people to see them. And tattoo parlours agree.
They suggest that most requested places to have a tattoo now appear to be behind the neck, on the ribs, on the wrist, on the ankle or inside the inner arm, and the smaller the better. Not many people are asking for tattoos on the small of the back, on the breast area, the legs or the arms. Tattooists are saying that there is a now a trend to get a tattoo that is suddenly ‘revealed’ by pulling your hair back, lifting your arm up, or removing a shoe, and having your friend or partner surprised that you have a tattoo.
And symbols are becoming the most popular tattoos, in particular ones that have some sort of personal meaning to the wearer. Studies suggest that a simple treble clef for music lovers is quite a common request, and tattoos on fingers have become popular thanks to Rihanna’s ‘Love’ tattoo on her middle finger. Speaking of one-word tattoos, apparently women are opting for words such as ‘Strength,’ ‘Conquer,’ ‘Believe,’ and ‘Faith,’. We think that this might have something to do with the strong role female models we now have in the media.
People are also choosing specific quotes from books or films that have special meaning to them. Popular phrases are often taken from ‘Lord of the Ring’s or Mumford & Sons songs and are inscribed in delicate and elegant script.
There is another trend emerging for elegant and clever tattoos, ones that change with a subtle body movement into something different. For instance, a few feathers on a persons fingers, when moving, transform into the plumage of a bird. Or a small stick figure appears to jump up and down on a trampoline, that kind of thing, something amusing and quirky and a little bit clever.
One thing for certain is that people are no longer choosing a tattoo from off the wall or from a book anymore; they come into a studio with a pretty clear idea of what they want.
An important thing to remember about tattoos is that there are a few golden rules, despite all that we have said above:
- Remember, whatever is in fashion will always become unfashionable; a trend is exactly that, a trend, it will not be trendy at some point, so it is best to choose a tattoo that is personal to you. If you’ve always loved sunflowers then get a sunflower tattoo, and get it in a place that you want. Think about those barbed wire chains or the Chinese symbols that were so popular in the late 80’s but now look dated; at the time they were edgy and cool. The thing to remember is that when something is in fashion you can’t imagine a time when it wont be.
- Finally, a bad tattoo will always look bad, whereas a good one, whether in fashion or not, will always be a good tattoo, so research your tattooist before you get yours done. If you see one that you like ask the person where they got it done. Remember, tattooists rely on word of mouth for repeat business. Finally, take your time when you decide on a design and try and think to the future you when you are 80 years old; will you still love that tattoo then? If yes then go ahead.
Check out our Pintrst boards for some beautiful tattoos.
